


Faster than the Devil

by deedreamer



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, F/M, Family Issues, Ficlet, Jessika is not not nice, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Not Related, Parents Han and Leia, Prompt Fic, Thanksgiving Dinner
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 22:33:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16880490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deedreamer/pseuds/deedreamer
Summary: Thank you to @luxlush for this killer prompt and for getting the angst-parade marching:“Ben is engaged to someone else. Rey is his foster sister, though she’s all grown up now. Ben returns home with his fiance after not having seen Rey in a few years.”





	Faster than the Devil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Just to be clear, Rey and Ben are not blood relatives and no one is under age. kthx

Ben Solo stood thirty paces from the front door of his childhood home, wishing the ground beneath his feet would split in two and end his misery. Nothing – not even the promise of finally having a woman join him in his teenage bed after all these years – was worth enduring the torture beyond that front door.

He walked forward through the snow covered path, a man on his way to execution. Jess turned to glance at him over her shoulder. “Do you think we can claim exhaustion and just go up to bed right after we eat?” she asked with an expression Ben could only call a scowl.

“Babe,” Ben grumbled, “whatever it takes. Let’s just get through it as quickly as possible.”

He smoothed the front of his dress shirt before running a nervous hand through his hair as he crossed the threshold and reached for the doorbell.

“Well,” Jess said with a pout, “we’re leaving at dawn, that’s all I’m saying.”

Ben nodded once. “Yup.”

He heard the doorbell chime on the other side of the door, some strange combination of bleeps and bloops his mother claimed four-year-old Ben had adorably insisted was robot language, and time seemed to come to a crawl. He hadn’t been home in four years. Had it been up to him, he’d have made it at least four more before standing on this front porch. And he’d have certainly avoided a family holiday at all costs.

But it was Thanksgiving, and he’d missed his little sister’s college graduation back in May, having conveniently been incommunicado while on a three month wilderness survival training trip in the back woods of Maine. When he’d finally emerged back into civilization in early July, the emails from Rey had left him feeling so much guilt for bolting before her high school graduation and now her college one, that he promised her in a weak moment he’d come home for the holiday.

_Jesus Christ, what a fucking mistake_.

He should never have come home.

As the bitter thought trudged through his mind, the door flew open. Light from the kitchen and family room backlit the figure standing in the frame, making Ben’s eyes strain to adjust from the dim, snowy dusk outside. As it turned out, he didn’t need to see anything at all because less than a second later he heard a voice shriek his name, quickly followed by the feeling of a body colliding with his, blocking the view of anything he might have been able to see.

“Oh, Ben,” Rey spoke into the shell of his ear, her arms looping around his neck as she climbed his body and wrapped her lithe legs around his waist just like she’d done as a gangly eight year old, “I can’t believe you’re finally home!” She sighed, before adding quietly, “I’ve missed you.”

Ben’s lip lifted in a half smile as he cleared his throat and awkwardly patted Rey’s back as she slid down his body back to her own two feet. “Missed you too, kid.”

Rey’s grin, somehow more bright and innocent at nearly twenty-two than Ben had ever seen her manage at seventeen, could’ve illuminated the whole fucking block.

Her eyes widened, suddenly realizing there was another human being on the porch standing beside Ben with a strange look upon her face. “Oh!” Rey gasped. “You must be Jessika! Welcome to our home, and welcome to the family!” Rey reached over to pull Jess into a hug, and Ben winced as he watched his fiance limply return the gesture.

“Yes,” Jess replied, pasting the smile Ben recognized as one hundred percent fake on her face, “well, the wedding isn’t until the spring, so…” Jess let the sentence trail off and Ben raised a quizzical brow at her, wondering what the hell she meant by that statement.

“Either way,” Rey said cheerfully, “it’s great to have you here. Both of you.” She stepped into the entry, holding the door open for the couple. “Come in, come in – it’s about to start snowing again!”

Ben and Jess followed Rey inside, closing the door on the chilly evening behind them. “Where is everybody?” Ben asked, taking off his wool coat and hanging it on the entryway rack. Mindlessly, he reached for Jess’s coat, never once taking his eyes off of Rey.

His foster sister was the same, but so very different.

Her hazel eyes were lined with a soft charcoal, making them more feline than he remembered. The freckles of her summertime youth still trailed across the bridge of her nose, but her cheeks were a smooth golden color, flushed peach with happiness. She wore a long comfortable looking forest green dress, her bare feet and hot pink polished toes peeking out from beneath the hem as it dusted the tile entryway floor.

She’d still been a tomboy at seventeen. Now? Now she was something else.

“Mom and dad are down in the basement at the bar. You know, Dad built that ‘man cave’ for himself year before last and I swear it’s a miracle he ever leaves,” Rey said with a laugh, shaking her head. “But it makes him happy, so!”

“Hm,” Ben murmured, his lips twitching against another grin, just watching her. He’d forgotten how damn infectious her smile could be.

He should never have come home.

“Well, I for one would love a drink. A strong one,” Jessika announced, nudging Ben in the ribs with her elbow.

“Yeah,” Ben nodded, “nothing like liquid courage.”

Rey giggled, swatting Ben’s other arm playfully. “C’mon, Benny, it’s not that bad. I’m sure you can handle one long weekend with your long lost family.”

Jessika stiffened, her sharp nails digging in to Ben’s forearm through his button down shirt. “Weekend?”

Ben turned to see an expression of pure alarm on his fiance’s face – an expression that matched his feelings exactly.

“What do you mean, ‘weekend?’ We’re just staying the night,” Jess announced, doing a poor job of concealing the panic rising in her voice.

“Yeah,” Ben jumped in, “we said we could only come for dinner and then we drive back to Boston first thing in the morning. I have, uh, work…” Ben nodded, pressing his lips together in hopes he was convincing, “…a lot of work this weekend.”

“Work,” Rey repeated, one brown brow rising to a perfect arch.

“Yep.”

“He’s really very busy with his book,” Jess added, squeezing Ben’s sizable bicep almost to the point of discomfort.

“Yeah, I’m behind on my next draft for my editor,” Ben said, nodding.

“Mom said you were staying the weekend,” Rey said, her voice barely more than a whisper. A deep furrow formed between her brows, and Ben swore he saw her bottle lip tremble.

Oh, hell no.

If she cried… if she shed one single tear he was a goner. He could never stand to see Rey cry. Not when she was in pigtails in grade school, not with braces and zits in middle school, not in high school when that punk-ass Joey Palmieri dumped her and broke her heart, and certainly not now.

“We’ll see what we can do, Rey,” he said quickly, reaching out to thumb her cheek. “Cheer up, kid.”

The pressure on his bicep turned from discomfort to pain as Jess’s nails bit into his skin. “Okay, _Benny_ , let’s go put our bags down in our room for a sec.”

“Oh!” Rey gasped, wiping dampness – but not a full-on teardrop, thank fuck – from beneath her right eye. “Of course, you must want a moment to pop upstairs and freshen up. I know it was a long drive with the snow and everything. You both must be tired.”

Ben shrugged. “It wasn’t that long.”

Jessika gave an impatient tug on Ben’s arm, pulling him toward the stairs and the promise of privacy. “Okay we’ll see you in a little while, Rayna.”

“Rey,” Ben said, standing firm, his body like a tree trunk planted in the foyer.

Jess dropped his arm and sighed, giving him a squinty-eyed look. “What?”

“Rey,” he repeated. “Her name isn’t Rayna. It’s just Rey.”

“Sorry,” Jess huffed, rolling her eyes. “Rey,” she repeated, cocking her head to the side and eyeing the younger woman in a way that made Ben’s skin prickle.

He hadn’t felt so protective since… well, since he’d had to punch Joey Palmieri in the face and almost break his nose four years ago. And that feeling… the way being around Rey made him feel like a he’d stuck his fingers in an electrical socket… the primal reactions he started having around her once she hit about fifteen… the way he felt alive and a little wild and a lot unhinged around her…

_That_ feeling was exactly why four years ago, twenty-three year old Ben convinced himself he was fucked in the head, and that his distracted but loving mother and emotionally stunted father would be better off without him around going caveman over his foster-slash-adopted sister who, by the way, hadn’t even been out of high school yet. Ben swallowed hard, and gave Rey a long look. He wasn’t sure what he was trying to silently communicate to her, but the happy creases at her eyes suddenly returned, and Ben was one hundred percent certain Rey understood his wordless message.

“We’ll be down in a few minutes,” he said, nodding once, his eyes never leaving Rey’s.

She smiled and Ben felt a something deep beneath his ribcage shift and pop, like he’d been fathoms deep and was ascending to the surface much too quickly.

He should never have come home.

“Okay,” Rey said with a nod, “I’ll go pour some drinks.”

Silently, Ben reached ahead of him to place his hand on Jess’s waist, guiding her forward to the staircase. She took the cue and began ascending, her overnight bag swinging down off her shoulder and bumping into Ben’s nose. They reached the landing and Ben stepped in front to show Jess to the guest room at the end of the hall.

“Here you are, babe,” he said, flipping on the lights. “Warmest room in the house,” had added with a chuckle. “I’m a little jealous.”

“Wait. You’re not sleeping in here? With me?”

“Oh no,” Ben huffed a brief laugh. “Mom and Pop Solo don’t play like that,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’ll be down the hall in my old bedroom. But,” he pulled Jess flush against him, her full breasts pressing into his chest, “I was gonna try to sneak you in sometime in the middle of the night,” he said in a whisper, his eyes alight with mischief.

Jess pushed away, scowling. “Are you serious, Ben?”

His jaw opened and closed without sound. “Yes,” he finally answered.

“You think you might have mentioned that sometime before today?” she asked, her cheeks flashing red with anger.

“We’re here for like one night. I didn’t think it mattered.” Ben explained, shaking his head at her in disbelief.

“And does maybe telling your fiance you have perverted thing going on with your goddamn foster sister or whatever the hell she is matter?”

Ben sucked in a breath, nostrils flaring. The room was silent for three breaths; he counted them in his head as he squeezed and flexed his left fist, tamping down a surge of anger.

When he finally spoke, Ben’s voice was quiet and strangely calm. It sounded foreign to his ears.

“What did you say?”

“Oh, fuck off, you heard me,” Jessika spat, her sleek, leonine features turning from attractive to harsh in a moment.

“I think maybe… you need to rest.”

“I think maybe I need a drink,” she retorted, icy blue eyes flashing. “And I think maybe we need to stick to our plan and get out of here as soon as fucking possible tomorrow. And I think we need to plan on eloping because ten minutes in this house and you’re losing your goddamn mind.”

Ben turned, his hand on the door knob, begging himself not to say something he’d regret. This was Jess – the woman he was supposed to marry in less than six months – the only woman who’d been willing to put up with his difficult personality and dour social skills.

Ben’s hand turned the brass knob. “I’ll see you down in the basement when you’re ready,” he said, head down, eyes closed, followed by a deep breath in and out.

Well, not the _only_ woman, he thought as he stepped into the hallway and gently closed the door behind him, leaving his fiance on the other side while they both calmed their tense nerves.

Since he was fourteen years old, there’d been Rey. It was probably always going to be Rey.

And that was the reason he should have never come home.


End file.
